Timberland dialed up a conference call the other day, featuring president and CEO Jeffrey Swartz and CSR subcommittee chairman Bill Shore to trumpet the release of the company’s new CSR report .
Shore noted that the board of the footwear and apparel manufacturer doesn’t mind being pushed, and then Swartz did some pushing of his own. Swartz said Timberland doesn’t want its report merely “to be a source of corporate cologne,” and he vented, very candidly, about his two “conundrums.” Enter Al Gore, Bill Clinton or Tony Blair. They, incidentally, are not the aforementioned conundrums, at least not to the Timberland CEO. 
Citing these former politicians and “statesmen,” Swartz said someone of their stature or authority is direly needed to get the CEOs of competitors like Timberland, Nike, Adidas and rivals in other industries to subordinate their killer instincts for a moment and to collaborate on the great environmental/sustainable issues of the day.
Despite the fact that Timberland’s competitors are “the Yankees to our Red Sox,” Swartz said collaboration on issues like renewable energy and combating toxins in the factory is essential. An invitation from one CEO probably wouldn’t bring competitors to the table, but Gore, Clinton, Blair or some other luminary or organization might rally the executive corps for the greater good.
“Part of what we have to have is the compelling invitation and it is quite lacking right now,” Swartz said.
He noted that creating such a network could help shape earth-shaking changes.
For example, Timberland can install solar reflectors on the ceilings of facilities in the Dominican Republic and wait a decade for payback, Swartz said.
But if footwear manufacturers want to scale up the potential impact from environmental improvements and present proposals to leaders in China, the erstwhile competitors will have to create a network at the CEO level to be effective, Swartz said.
Swartz’s description of his second conundrum -- consumers’ reluctance to link commerce and justice -- triggered a virtual love-fest with Seventh Generation president and “chief inspired protagonist” Jeffrey Hollender, who was invited to the conference call.
Maybe the two, Swartz and Hollender, have a New England thing going, given that their companies are located in New Hampshire and Vermont, respectively. (Maybe both are Red Sox fans, too.)
Anyway, heaping praise on Hollender’s CR track record, Swartz said -- and Hollender agreed -- that consumers have yet to translate what they say they believe about sustainability into buying behavior.
Swartz conceded that “frankly, the consumer is ahead of the shareholder” in linking justice and commerce, and that companies need to enhance their marketing messages to show that buying a certain product can make the consumer feel good about contributing to social change.
Hollender concurred, saying one business can’t do that alone, but perhaps 10 to 20 companies pounding away on that theme can have some clout with the consumer.
The Seventh Generation president said the industry faces “an incredibly passive consumer marketplace,” and the message should be framed to show how climate change will impact families, including children.
Meanwhile, Swartz is pondering anew: “Who’s going to get us to the table?”
I don’t agree with Swartz that an invitation from one CEO to his peers would necessarily elicit a cold shoulder from competitors.
Perhaps I am being naïve, but there’s one way to find out.
Maybe Swartz or the top guy at one of his rivals should stick their necks out and prod the leadership in the footwear and apparel industry to come together to cooperate on issues like renewable energy and toxins in the workplace that might help to save a piece of the planet.
But, short of that initiative, does anyone have Al Gore’s cell number?
al gore's cell
I wish I did have Al Gore's cell number... if he's got one.